Determination of cation exchange capacity of woody plant roots using ammonium acetate extractant

Abstract

A rapid exchange procedure using ammonium acetate as an extractant was developed for measurement of cation exchange capacity (CEC) of plant roots. The CEC values obtained with 1∶100 and 1∶200 root/solution ratios were almost equal, though the values increased with length of the time of immersion in both the root/solution ratios. The method gave higher CEC values with fresh roots as compared to dried roots. However, dried milled and dried unmilled roots gave identical values.